The Exercise of Creative Writing

Welcome to another FFF, though it is now Saturday. Given the fact that I fell asleep on the couch before 9 last night, I am considering today the beginning of the FFF weekend. Purgatorian has posted his weekly challenge and I am in. He also was talking about some new ideas—I had sent him a link to one of my favorite exercise books by a professor of mine: The 3 a.m. Epiphany by Brian Kiteley. Buy it, buy it, buy it. The man makes no money and deserves to so join the club and, like me, stuff everyone’s stockings with it.

But hey, he does have some new and shiny ideas that may be just perfect for FFF. One could use these ideas as a jumping off place to create one's own work, just as JJ does with his suggestions. Some of his ideas for using other peoples sentences, pulled from his above book, are:

• “Like all men of ---, I have been a leader; like all, I have been a slave.” (Jorge Luis Borges)
• “Truth, like morality, is a relative affair: There are no facts, only interpretations.”
• “She said, I know what it’s like to be dead.” (Lennon/McCartney)
• “Every morning there’s a halo hanging from the corner of my girlfriend’s four-post bed.” (Sugar Ray)

I made quite an interesting piece long ago out of that last one. Hmm. Should dust that off someday. However, by far the exercise I have been using the most lately, and the most overall, is the following:

"POSTCARDS TO FRANCE:
Write a story on an actual postcard and send it to an actual friend--the story should have nothing to do with the fact that you are writing it on a postcard. Use a pre-stamped post office card, which is blank on one side (write the address on the other side). Decide on the friend before you start writing the story--a story to your mother is going to be different than a story to your best friend or lover. Write in one draft. Write down a copy of the story for yourself, without changing anything from the first draft (a more difficult task than you may realize). I write small, so I can usually fit about 300 words on these small canvases, but your story may be more like 150 words--which is a very small story indeed, even in the context of all these microfictions I'm causing you to conjure up. Write to fill the whole space, left and right sides of the 'page,' as well as top and bottom. As you come closer to the end of the space, you'll have to start wrapping up the story. Think about this story for a while, a few days even, in advance of writing it. Don't introduce yourself to your friend in any way; just jump right into the story. 150-300 words."

I love this exercise with a senseless passion, mostly because I have seen the power of such spare, short and powerful droplets of fiction in Brian Kiteley's published works. I also love them for myself.

• One: they make me write with a pen and paper rather than a keyboard. This really does make a difference for any of you who haven't compared. My work written in pencil is not as lengthy; it does not need the drastic cutting that much of my fiction does. I do run on at the keyboard, mostly because the concept of written space is so obviously present--word count tools, pages, double-spacing. On the written page, the words are there because they truly need to be.
• Two: I feel much less pressure when I know I am condensing my thoughts/my story ideas to a small closet of space. I feel I can be very true to that moment without thinking about how I am going to link it to the next moment in the plot. I can be true to that moment, can create so many true moments. Yes, I do have some trouble linking them afterwards. But, even if I use only a few sentences from my "postcard," I believe it is worthwhile to have that passion and prescience.
• Three: Brian does say that sending the postcard is a necessary part of the exercise. I have been lax about that part because I have been using it for a very long piece and would hate to inundate my friends like that. It is helpful but… well, I guess I get a D there. Can I have a D+, please?

I feel very strongly about the book—Brian Kiteley and his infamous exercises are a few of the many reasons I had such an amazing experience in the Creative Writing program at DU. If you are a writer and crave some inspiration… I should just say ‘If you are a writer,’ you should definitely check out the book. Or, check back on occasion and I will entertain you all even more with long sections of another person’s work. Does fill up the blank space, hmmm?